Toby Bond, associate at Bird & Bird, explains the intellectual property challenges being faced by businesses using artificial intelligence.
Many sectors are set to undergo significant disruption as a result of artificial intelligence. In addition to disrupting business models, AI will also disrupt our legal framework for the creation and exploitation of intellectual property rights, and give rise to new IP challenges for those seeking to develop and deploy AI systems.
IP Generated by AI
AI systems are already being used to generate content capable of attracting IP protection. Working out exactly who owns the IP rights in this content will become increasingly important, especially when it comes to licensing or enforcing those rights.
Copyright
Ownership of copyright is determined by reference to the “author” of a work. Where an AI system is only used by a human as a tool for creating a work the human using the system will clearly be considered the author. However, what about situations where the AI is more instrumental in creating the work, e.g. the AI is fed a few basic inputs by a human and then goes on to create something which is much more than the sum of these inputs?...